The trailer says “Free to play” on December 11, but the game is really difficult to play if you don’t spend at least like $20-30 on stash space. You can at least finish the campaign (level 70) without spending any money.
Is POE2 a good game in general for absolute casual? I’m not really a loot AARPG player, but it piqued my interest because it has playable werewolf and we haven’t had that many good werewolf games in decades (people are still surviving on modded Skyrim)
The game is like a sandbox. Imagine minecraft. Children play minecraft. Some people go into minecraft and spend a few hours building a cute little house. Some people put 1000 hours into minecraft and build circuit board replicas.
I think a casual gamer could complete the POE 2 campaign in 20-25 hours. Maybe closer to 10 hours if you follow character guide. The campaign is like the tutorial for the game. If you still like the game after completing the campaign, then you unlock the “The Atlas”/“map device” and that’s where the real game begins.
I have not tried the shapeshifting character.
The POE 2 campaign has dark-souls-like characteristics. The game says you should press space bar to dodge roll out of boss attacks. Some of the boss attacks can kill you in 1 hit if you don’t dodge. The boss resets if you die. I hate the Viper boss in Act 3 the most.
I’ve been casually playing through the POE 1 campaign with a few friends and it’s been a blast so far. I’m happy to hear that POE 2 has a similar formula.
PoE2 is definitely a lot more fun with friends. Once you get good enough in PoE1 whether your own skills or your build, the gap between each other often feels like you might as well play solo.
I could keep playing co-op far into the endgame in PoE2. I say this as a lover of PoE1.
Grim Dawn just released a DLC with a werewolf ability, you could check that out
PoE2 is definitely a lot more approachable than PoE1 and other AARPG games.
The word ‘casual’ is hard to say since even someone playing like every day for hours can still be “casual” and just be having fun without delving super hard into the more complex mechanics and interactions. It’s definitely a lot more “casual” friendly for sure.
It’s a difficult game with a ton of complex systems, definitely moreso than Diablo games (D2 is their biggest inspiration and it shows in a lot of ways). That being said, the campaign alone isn’t too bad, easier if you follow a build guide but the early tutorials are generally enough to learn the basics.
Also worth mentioning that PoE leagues are nothing like typical live service junk. You need to roll a new character to play a new league/season (or keep the same character going in Standard, one league behind in mechanics but always available). Past that, there aren’t really any events, FOMO, or whatever. The only thing that really changes significantly aside from balance patches during a league is the in-game trade economy. Unless you’re playing in a “self-found” realm (i.e. you can only use items you’ve found yourself, including currencies and materials), PoE leans heavily on its trading systems.
Wait, Path of Exile 2 was a Beta this whole time???
Yep, early access since Dec 2024, this past huge update was just 0.5
There goes my Dec and Jan.
I am quite excited for this! I was initially quite unhappy with the state of the game before 0.5. Before that patch, I thought the endgame could never be better than PoE1 but I guess I was proven wrong after 0.5!
Just needs better ways of ascending, I still quite dearly miss Izaro…
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
